How Are Homeopathic Medicines Manufactured ?

Homeopathic medicines are derived from natural sources like herbs, minerals, animal products including even poisons and venomous substances. A specific amount of these substances are dissolved in a predetermined quantity of water or alcohol to make the 'mother tincture'. This is the crudest form of the medicine.

Homeopathy practitioners then further dilute this mother tincture to achieve the correct strength or potentization, depicted by a code. This potentization is achieved by diluting and shaking the medical substance by turn until molecules of the original substance are no more left in the liquid. It is thought that this progression releases and imprints the inherent therapeutic power of the crude medicinal substance all through the body of the diluent.

A medicine that has been diluted and shaken 30 times will be 30C, starting with 1 part of crude drug mixed with 99 parts of alcohol every time. The first such dilution is 1C, from which one drop will be taken and diluted with 99 drops of alcohol, giving 2C. This procedure goes on.

If the dilutions are made starting with 1 drop of the drug and 9 drops of alcohol each time, then the potentization code is written as 1x. The most common dilutions used in clinical practice include 6x, 12x, 30 x and 6c, 12c, and 30c. Higher the dilution, greater is the strength of the medicine and stronger is its effect. The medicines are marketed in the forms of pills, powders or liquid. The pills are prepared by mixing the liquid with lactose globules, so the homeopathic medicines are sweet in taste.

The minimum dose that will cure should be used
Homeopathic medicines do not simply suppress the symptoms of a disease. Rather, these therapeutic agents act as catalysts that assist the body's inherent healing mechanism. The medicines actually excite in the body symptoms similar to those that are caused by the existent disease itself. Hence, these are administered in very small doses.

Determination of Potency for Chronic and Acute Diseases
Chronic disease shows the permanent entry of one of the three fundamental miasms - Psora, Syphilis or Sycosis - names given by Hahnemann to diseases that present obstacles which interfere with the healing capacity of the remedies.
Chronic diseases like diabetes, asthma, tuberculosis etc. are deep-rooted, have an unremitting progressive propensity with no tendency for recovery. These deteriorate the general health of the patient. In chronic cases high potency medicines are used, in order to target the root cause of the ailment effectively.
However, when the vital force of a patient suffering from a chronic ailment is weak, application of a high potency medicine may further aggravate the symptoms. This may prove to be fatal for the paitent. In such cases, low potency drugs are used over a continued period of time, to rejuvenate the system, before switching to the high potency medicine.

In acute syndromes a disease-causing microorganism enters the body, passes through the prodrome, progressive and decline phases and are extruded out of the body, as in measles. In cases like cold, cough, simple fever, flu, diarrhea, food poisoning, chicken pox etc. when the symptoms are already aggravated, administration of a highly potent medicine may actually harm the patient by furthering the symptoms.

So in acute cases, medicines with lower potency are usually used. Also, in this scenario, homeopaths may first want to employ medicines that help subside the exacerbated symptoms to give initial relief to the patient. Only when that is achieved, they move on to treating the initiating source of the malady.

The size of the dose that is employed by the homeopaths is simply the result of experience. They believe that the selection of the right remedy is far more important than the size of the dose, as long as the latter is not so large as to cause any serious aggravation of the symptoms.

Thus, it requires precise knowledge and excellent expertise to choose the right remedy and to settle on the frequency of the repetition of the dose, especially if high dilutions are used. The low dilutions can be repeated without any injury more frequently than the higher dilutions.

How to administer the remedy
In acute diseases and in cases where a prompt action is necessary, the practice is to give the medicine dissolved in water. If the remedy is in the form of globules, 12 of those are dissolved in half a glass of cold water, and if it is in the form of a tincture, one drop is dissolved into a glassful of water. The solution should be stirred well and an adult should be given two teaspoonfuls for a dose.

In chronic cases or even in acute ones which are not too urgent, the remedy may be given dry on the tongue, or dissolved in water. If it is in the form of globules, four of those for an adult and two four a child should be used. For a tincture, one or two drops into a spoonful of water should be given to an adult while only one-fourth of the solution should be given to a child, if only a single dose is to be administered.